‘Deal with Avengers, militants as criminals’

A Niger Delta activist and the National Convener of the South South Reawakening Group, Mr. Joseph Ambakederimo, has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to treat the Niger Delta Avengers and other militant groups in the troubled region as criminals.
Ambakederimo said that Niger Delta issues could not be resolved through violence, condemning the activities of the NDA.
The activist told our correspondent in an interview in Warri, Delta State that what the militant groups were doing in the region would not bring about the needed peace and development in the area.
Ambakederimo, who also condemned the way and manner the Federal Government had been dealing with militant groups in the region, however, urged President Buhari to deal decisively with any militant group causing trouble in the region.
He implored Buhari to treat the militants as criminals, because, according to him, the Nigerian constitution did not give anybody the right to carry arms, except the police, security agencies and the military.
Ambakederimo urged the FG to use all its military might and intelligence to crush the militant groups.
He said, “The Federal Government should crush the so-called Niger Delta Avengers because we know that most of them will not come out to talk. They (NDA) know that what they are doing is bad. What are they avenging?
These pipelines they are destroying belong to all of us. This is not a time for people to be destroying their property under the guise that they are being cheated. We cannot achieve the needed peace and development by destroying our things.”
The activist also challenged the NDA and other militant groups in the region to come out of their comfort zone and face the government in a roundtable discussion, rather than hide in the creeks.
He said the only way that peace could be achieved in the region was for the militants to lay down their arms and embrace dialogue, where they could put all their cards on the table for discussion.
The Niger Delta activist also stressed that the only way the country could get rid of corrupt leaders was for the citizens to hold their leaders accountable, lamenting that Nigerians were too docile and had allowed greedy politicians to continue to steal the nation’s assets to their detriment.
Ambakederimo noted that the South/South region had been relegated in the scheme of things because of ethnic politics played during the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan.